Want to stop a single app on your Galaxy phone from reaching the internet at all? One UI 9 can do that. The control is called AI Network Guard, and it lives inside a hidden menu you have to unlock with repeated taps. Blocking an app’s connection also stops ads inside it from appearing, because an ad has to be downloaded before it can be displayed.
What AI Network Guard actually does
Descriptions of the feature frame it around data usage. It watches how much data apps consume and limits their internet access according to rules you set in advance. The stated purpose is productivity and parental control, not advertising.
The ad effect is a side effect, and that distinction matters in practice. AI Network Guard is not a filter that strips ads out of an app while leaving the rest of it working. It cuts the app off the network completely. Anything that needs a connection will simply stop working properly if you restrict it. That includes Google Maps, WhatsApp and Spotify. The feature is only useful for apps you are happy to run fully offline.
How to enable AI Network Guard on One UI 9
These steps come from a single hands-on report, tested on a Galaxy S26 Ultra running the One UI 9 beta. Menu placement may differ on stable builds or on other devices. As of October 9, no official Samsung walkthrough for the feature has surfaced.
- Open Settings > Connections > Wi-Fi.
- Tap the three-dot menu, then tap Intelligent Wi-Fi.
- At the bottom of that screen, tap Intelligent Wi-Fi seven times to unlock the hidden menu.
- Go to Connectivity Labs > AI Network Guard, then set a PIN.
- Tap Manage restriction, enter the PIN, and choose Restrict apps.
- Select the apps you want to restrict and tap Confirm.
The PIN is worth setting carefully. Changing the restriction list later requires it, so keep it somewhere you will not lose it.
A control this useful should not take seven taps
A per-app internet switch is a genuinely valuable thing to have. It saves mobile data and it cuts off apps that phone home more than you would like. It also gives parents a blunt but effective lever. Samsung has placed it behind a seven-tap unlock gesture in a submenu called Connectivity Labs, where almost nobody will find it by accident.
The natural home for a setting like this is Settings > Apps, beside permissions. That is where people already go to control what an app is allowed to do. Its position in a labs menu also signals that Samsung may not consider the feature finished, which is a fair reason to be careful about relying on it.
Do not confuse it with Samsung’s ad-notification blocker
Samsung also offers a Device Care option that detects and blocks spammy ad notifications. That is a separate feature on One UI 8.5, and it is unrelated to AI Network Guard. One deals with notifications you receive, the other with network access an app is granted.
The honest caveat
Hidden lab menus are hidden for a reason. Samsung can move, rename or remove anything inside Connectivity Labs in a later build without telling anyone. One hands-on account on beta software is also thin evidence that every One UI 9 device behaves identically. If the option is not where these steps say, your build most likely does not have it.
Keep the limitation in mind too. There is no selective option here, so for apps you need online this is not the tool for the job. For a sense of which Galaxy phones are on One UI 9 in the first place, see our One UI 9 feature compatibility coverage.
Source: Beebom
